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General discussion

What brand of printer do you own, and are you happy with it?

Apr 4, 2006 5:17AM PDT

What model, make, and brand of printer do you own (primary printer), and are you happy with it?

Brother
Canon
Dell
Epson
HP
Lexmark
Samsung
Sharp
Other (which one?)

Discussion is locked

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try OA100 Ink
Apr 4, 2006 12:02PM PDT

do a search for OA100 ink, I have found ink tanks for my Canon iP3000 for around 5 bucks each.

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another source for ink...
Apr 5, 2006 1:29AM PDT

I get my ink for my canon's from www.supermediastore.com. I tried the generic inks and they work just as well as the canon inks, and are about $3.00 per cart., vs. the canon price of $12-13 cart.

Dave

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Epson all the way..!
Apr 4, 2006 11:54AM PDT

I have the Epson Stylus Photo R1800 Printer with 8 inks. The best retail printer on the market hand down!

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Canon
Apr 4, 2006 11:55AM PDT

Got an S-330 for $53 at Circuit City coupla year ago does a Great job. I've always bought Canons.

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Canon PIXMA iP3000
Apr 4, 2006 11:57AM PDT

Very Happy with this printer.Aftermarket ink tanks run about 5 bucks.

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Canon PIXMA iP3000
Apr 4, 2006 10:30PM PDT

I agree. Cost efficient and quick printing. Had an HP before, the quality of prints on the HP were not very good, always had lines in photo.

Canon, which I own now, is great. Photos are excellent now. Very happy with Canon. Love that each color is separate, and it will still print if one cartidge is empty.

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Canon PIXMA iP3000
Apr 5, 2006 8:57AM PDT

Bought it for its inexpensive cost, found good inexpensive ink, works for me day in and out. Like Power save, top/bottom feeds, ink displays, quietness, and above all, very good quality in photos. No maintenance issues.

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Epson Stylus C66 (or any Epson printer for that matter!)
Apr 4, 2006 12:03PM PDT

I own an Epson Stylus C66 and have been extremely happy with it from day one. In the past I have owned a Canon, an HP, and a Lexmark printer and tossed them all in the garbage not too long after I bought them. The Epson print quality is superb and the inks are soooooo much cheaper than any other brand (particularly if you're willing to use generic inks).

I am now, and forever shall be, a diehard Epson fan.

LL1

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I too am an Epson fan
Apr 4, 2006 5:20PM PDT

In the past I have also had a few other printers the like of lexmark, hp and Dell whilst the initial cost of the Epson is slightly dearer the price of the inks even the originals soon take the cost overall to much less than the competition, but failing anything else in my opinion the print quality on generic or most named brand paper has no competition unless it is the hp semi gloss which can actually reduce the quality of the print. We now have 3 epson printers in our home, my trusty R300 my wife has an all in one dx3800 and my son has a newer R320 none of us would change from epson again unless the alternatives really pull their fingers out and make something really impressive with a running cost equivalent to that of most epson printers.

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totally agree Epson brill
Apr 5, 2006 5:48AM PDT

I started with a xerox (6 years ago)then got a cannon s400, then s450 as I print off lots of things for school crafts I needed something cheap to run my c66 prints just as good as my mums HP and I get my ink from a club buy in bulk and they are only 2.99 (2.99 for cannon too)each (12.00 for all 4), mums is 29.00 for just one coloured set of 3 24.00 for the black I have the cannon s450 for quick worksheets etc and use my Epson for photos which are of good quality never used a photo developer shop for well over 4 years now Love Epson printers

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HP & Epson inkjets
Apr 4, 2006 12:05PM PDT

I have an old HP 952c inkjet printer that I over-use for my basic stuff, BW printing, text stuff, etc... Occassionally, I will use it for photo printing & the prints come out looking good. But for the real photos that I give out or send to someone, I use my new Epson R220 which I bought mainly for photos. There is a significant difference in the printing qualities between the 2 printers, of which the Epson performs far better than the old HP. As long as the old HP is still working, I will keep that one around for it's my workhorse. And once that printer quits, I will replace it with another HP to do my text printing.

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HP DescJet 932C
Apr 4, 2006 12:06PM PDT

While not called a photo printer I have been happy with the photo print quality on HammerMill Premium Photo Paper.

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NEC silentwriter 95 with Poscript
Apr 4, 2006 12:08PM PDT

My primary printer has been a laser for years. Even a low dpi laser will produce incredably sharp letter quality pages very cheaply - far cheaper than ink jets. The NEC is going on 14 years without any problems at all.

My second printer is a HP Photosmart 1115 it works well also but as far as letter quality any laser printer will make it look very bad. For pictures I will usually go to a service or kiosk to print just to get a photo with durable inks - in the end it doesn't get much use and when it does the cartridges ink is clogged up quite badly. Not because their bad, but from lack of use.

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Windows Vista driver for NEC Silentwriter 95
Jun 29, 2007 3:58PM PDT

Yep, FASST LN is correct. The NEC Silentwriter 95 Postscript laser is a fine printer ... it just keeps going and going.

Eager to resume using this workhourse now that I have a new laptop running Windows Vista.

1. Can you recommend a source for drivers?

2. And what's the best way to connect this parallel-port printer to a USB port?

Many thanks,

Rick
Plano, Texas

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parallel-port printer to a USB port
Nov 28, 2007 9:25PM PST

I found a parallel-port printer to a USB port cable on ebay.
Just need to find the drivers, but it ought to work.

Definitely a work horse printer.

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HP all-in-one
Apr 4, 2006 12:08PM PDT

I had been using Epsons for several years but decided to try the Photosmart 3310 because it was one of the few machines with a stand alone fax and the output speed is far faster than the Epson. Photo quality might be slightly better from Epson but for an all-in-one, reliability, (after four months no probs) and support, the HP is a definite winner.

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Preferred printer
Apr 4, 2006 12:10PM PDT

I use a Dell 3100cn and am very pleased. Excellent printing quality in both B&W and color for both text and graphics. Print speed is very good in B&W but a little slow in color.

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Dell 3100cn
Dec 26, 2006 1:10AM PST

The Dell 3100 is impressive that's for sure, and by a company that has by undying loyalty as far as computers go...can't beat that! The printer is fast (but like you said leaves a little to be desired on speedy color printing) and has excellent print quality. The only thing that REALLY stinks, but I suppose is unavoidable is the price of the toner. It literally costs almost as much as the printer to purchase a full set of toner ($250, check http://www.dell.com out!). And in my small office we have to replace color cartridges at least three or four times per year, which adds up quick. One thing I've tried is buying compatible ink, which though some people look down on it, it'll save you about $100 per full set purchase and I can't tell a difference in quality. The one site I use is a place called supplies guys; the dell link is: http://www.suppliesguys.com/dell-3100cn-toner-supplies.htm. Overall though, excellent printer, sweet price, and beautiful quality. Keep it up Mikie!

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Canon printer
Apr 4, 2006 12:11PM PDT

I have a Canon i950, which I am very happy with. I have also owned HP and Epson printers, as well as another Canon, and I have found the Canons to be far better. The best selling point is the separate ink cartridges. It really gets old having to throw out a catridge that is half full of ink, just because you ran out of cyan. Sad

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Love my Epson Stylus CX5400
Apr 4, 2006 12:13PM PDT

Just finished printing out three lovely albums from the last year - over 100 pages in each - in rich photo color. The family loves them, and I love that the Stylus has been so troublefree. If only my last printer (a Brother C9300) had been so.

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Epson Stylus CX5400
May 5, 2006 2:05PM PDT

I have just bought this printer at a local Goodwill store. (without software). I have downloaded the drivers from Epson"s website for my laptop with XP; was a pain in the a...; nothing works and scaning a pic takes ages with no possibilty to edit it, except in Paint...
If all the rest of Epson is as good as the scanner,..no more Epson.
Peter

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CX5400
May 7, 2006 7:00AM PDT

Thank you so much for this. You may have saved me lots of angst as I was about to get one on e-bay.

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Epson CX5400
Nov 29, 2006 1:14PM PST

You bought a CX5400 at a Goodwill store WITHOUT the CD which has, not only the drivers, but the rest of the software!!!

It also has: Epson Smart Panel, ArcSoft PhotoImpression 5.0.

If your machine already had a digital imaging software programe, Corel or Adobe, you wouldn't need anything else.

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hmmm a bit harsh wouldnt you say
May 7, 2006 3:00PM PDT

lets see .. you got a printer from goodwill for 5 bucks and you expect it to work perfectly .. further you blame epson because it doesnt .. further others and not buying epson because of your bad experience with epson (or perhaps goodwill) ...

people give things to goodwill because they either dont work or maybe they just couldnt figure out how to make them work or they are just helping out by giving things they dont need ... people buy things from goodwill to (1) help a charity (2) to take a chance on being able to make it work (thats a gamble if you are not familiar with how to fix stuff) ..

near as i know not many companies extend warranties to thrift shop purchases ... and should epson or any other company be held respossible for 2nd/3rd hand purchases ... and should someone not buy a product because another found one in the trash that didnt work ...

i doubt that your cx5400 has significant design flaws but likely is just a blown printer someone gave away.. most people cant judge if its repairable or not so you, the purchaser must make that judgment ...

and you mentioned the epson scanner as being bad also based on your experience with goodwill ... well you are putting down probably one of the best scanners around (according to many reviews) ... anyhow i am not aligned with any company but will speak up when i see what i perceive as an injustice ..

hope you get your printer working (i would even help you if i could, i do that a lot) but i dont think your issue is with epson ...

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A bit harsh-Epson Printer
May 10, 2006 5:14AM PDT

Quite often these printers and other hardware are given to Goodwill due to the death of the last owner or out of other reasons, like having received a newer and better printer or scanner. I tested the printer before buying and then it worked fine; just amazed that after having downloaded the necessary software it suddenly did notprint at all and when I checked on the suppport website, it told me to call tech support. As I had been unable to go to the Internet for almost 2 days I did not have the time to call tech support.I will let you know about the outcome.
Peter

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Epson Stylus CX5400
Nov 29, 2006 1:09PM PST

The CX5400 seems to have a major defect. If you search CX5400, you will see that the printing heads/nozzles give out. I have a CX5400 and CX6600. After 2 years, my CX5400 stopped printing anything. But, I called Seiko-Epson and they will repair it at no charge and even pay for shipping. I was offered a "good buy" on another machine but I really like the CX5400 since it restores old photos well.

I have always used Epson inks and maintain it well.

Just throught you'd like to know.

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Canon MP780
Apr 4, 2006 12:13PM PDT

I have the Canon MP780, and all-in-one. I'm overall happy with it, but as far as printers go, I was much happier with the Epson printers I had before I had this one. The only reason I purchased this is I wanted an all-in-one that included Fax, and up until very, VERY recently, Epson didn't include Fax on any of their all-in-ones.

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Question on Canon MP780
Aug 4, 2006 11:38AM PDT

I'm interested in the Canon MP780 and was curious as to what negative comments or experiences you've had with this model. Would you recommend any other all-in-one printer? Thanks.

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HP 4600dn Color LaserJet
Apr 4, 2006 12:13PM PDT

As I don't use the LaserJet for photos I take them to Wolf Camera and have prints made there at $0.07 each. These prints will last a lifetime... Shy clear of the Wal*Mart, CVS, Walgreen's, etc as they can't match the lasting ability of the professionals.

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Canon i860....It's one AWESOME printer....
Apr 4, 2006 12:14PM PDT

Mine is at least 2 years old now, but still LOVE it! Makes GREAT pictures and fast B&W printing too! Couldn't have asked for more!